


The Ring

by silly_mortal



Category: The Time of Your Life - Saroyan
Genre: Abuse, Emotional Hurt, Emotional Manipulation, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/M, Forced Prostitution, Physical Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:46:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26336641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silly_mortal/pseuds/silly_mortal
Summary: Kitty wasn't always a prostitute, but this is the night she became one."Too many things have happened to me." ~ Kitty Duval
Relationships: Kitty Duval/Original Character
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	The Ring

**Author's Note:**

> I love Kitty and I have her entire life made up in my head... it's just a question of getting it onto paper. I want wonderful things to happen to her and I think they did... eventually. Before that, though, she went through years of hell. I don't know how old Saroyan's Kitty is but the Kitty in my head didn't meet Tom until she was in her early 20s and all of this started when she was 18.
> 
> I'm pretty sure this will go unseen, because who would be on here looking for 'The Time of Your Life' besides me? Just in case, it's my first attempt at writing anything, so please be kind. If you see anything that needs changing or if you have any tips, I'm all ears. :-)
> 
> FYI, the Kitty in my head is the one Patti LuPone played in 1976.
> 
> Kitty's Timeline (so far)
> 
> The Ring  
> Grandfather  
> The Proposition  
> A Series of Questions

Late Summer, 1936

Kitty had never been a light sleeper. When she was younger, her mother had the hardest time waking her up for school, often having to sprinkle a few water drops on her face in order to rouse her from her slumber. But that was _before_ … before the night she awoke to her sister’s husband lying on top of her in her bed. Before the night she was raped for the first time.

Since then, which was only three months ago, she had gotten very little sleep at all. She probably wouldn’t have anyway but it didn’t help that Charlie, the man she had lived with since the day after the attack, the day she fled Chicago, had people over their apartment every night and they would drink and play cards in the next room until dawn.

She didn’t sleep as deeply now so, when she felt fingers trying to remove the ring from her finger, she immediately pulled her hand away and sat up in bed. Charlie, who told people he was her husband although he wasn’t, was leaning over her.

“What are you doing?” she asked, scooting away from him in the bed.

“I need your ring, Kit. Give it to me,” he said, in the darkness of the room. 

“For what?”

“I’m playing this last hand and I ran out of money. I’m not gonna lose – I’ll bring it right back. Give it to me.”

He reached for it again, but she scooted further back.

“No.”

“Whaddya mean ‘no’? Give me the goddamn ring!”

“No, Charlie. I’m not going to let you gamble my mother’s ring. It’s the only thing I have left of her. You can’t have it!”

“Kitty...” he said, in a low but threatening voice, “I _said_ I would give it back. I just need it for now. Give. Me. The. Ring.”

“No.”

Charlie reached for her, but Kitty jumped out of the bed and faced him from the other side of the bed. Her eyes had adjusted to the darkness and the light from the window allowed her to see his shadow.

Normally, she would have been embarrassed to be standing there without clothes on, but she was too concerned with keeping her mother’s heirloom safe to even give it a second thought. Besides, he had seen everything before, repeatedly and in embarrassingly close detail. She used to wear a nightgown, but Charlie destroyed it the last time she resisted his advances. Sleeping in the nude was not something she liked, if anything it added to her inability to sleep well, but Charlie preferred it and life was easier when she did as he told her. 

“Charlie, are you playing or not?” a male voice called, from behind the bedroom door. “We’re sick of waiting!”

“Deal me out of this hand, fellas!” Charlie said, his voice jovial but his eyes filled with hate, as he stared at the young woman before him.

“Please, Charlie… Don’t take it.”

He lowered his voice.

“If you give me the ring now, with an apology, we’ll forget this ever happened. If you don’t hand it over right now, I will make you sorry you were ever born.”

The moment he made Kitty sorry she was born had already long come and gone. It was the day he forced her to have sex with him, just weeks after she had been raped by her brother in law. Or was it the first time he had struck her for saying something he didn’t like? 

“I mean it, Kit, I will beat the tar out of you.”

Charlie beat the tar out of her at least once a week, so she didn’t doubt what he said. He loved leaving bruises on her pale skin, his favorite being the ones he made on her hips and inner thighs. The marks he left seemed to be viewed by him as his own personal brand, as if she were his property. Since she had recently begun working at a department store, he had to resort to leaving the signs of his abuse on parts of her body that her uniform covered up. It had bothered him in the beginning, but he managed to get creative. As his eyes raked over her naked form, she was certain he could still see the bite marks on her stomach and bruises on her breasts from when he pinched her. The most recent injury he had bestowed on her was one he couldn’t see from the angle he was at. It was a burn on her left buttock from where a cigarette had been put out, gifted to her by Charlie after the last time she told him ‘no’. She knew there would be hell to pay for telling him no this time, but she didn’t care. She wasn’t going to give up her mother’s ring while there was still breath in her body.

When Kitty just stood there staring at him, with her hands behind her back, Charlie became infuriated. He leaped onto the bed and reached out for her, but Kitty raced to the foot of the bed. He jumped off the bed and chased her but, by the time he reached the place where she had been standing, Kitty was standing back on the bed with her back against the wall. He tried repeatedly to grab her, but Kitty was a good ten years younger than him and the years she spent growing up on a farm with three siblings had made her fast and agile. Thankfully, every time he lunged at her, she managed to evade capture. 

Kitty surveyed the room, looking for an escape. She was terrified. She was certain he was going to hurt her the second he got his hands on her, she could tell by the look in his eyes and the smile on his face. Charlie always smiled just before - and while - he caused her injury. He was a small man, hardly taller than her, with red hair and freckles. He had been teased his entire life, mainly about his stature, and never felt powerful in the presence of other men, so he made it a point to feel powerful as possible to the detriment of the 18-year-old girl who lived with him. 

There was nowhere to hide in the tiny bedroom. There was a small closet, but it had no lock. The bathroom was in the other room, so she could seek no refuge there. Besides, she knew she couldn’t run into a room full of men while she was undressed. She couldn’t be certain any of them would actually help her and she couldn’t risk that they wouldn’t do something even worse to her than Charlie would. 

Kitty was trying to map out a path that would allow her to grab one of Charlie’s shirts from the pile of laundry at the far end of the room when she saw a flash of movement from the corner of her eye. She tried to jump off the bed, but misjudged how fast he was moving and felt him grab her wrist. Kitty fell onto the bed on her side and started kicking and screaming as Charlie climbed on top of her. He forced her onto her back and clamped a hand over her mouth.

“Shut the fuck up!” he hissed. “Do you want them to think I’m murdering you in here?”

Kitty bit down on his hand and he pulled it away from her mouth with a roar. She brought one of her knees up between his legs with all her might. Charlie made an ‘oomph’ sound and he rolled partway off of her. Kitty managed to squeeze out from under him and climbed off of the bed. She raced to the corner of the room and grabbed one of his button-down shirts from a pile of clothes. She glanced over her shoulder, as she pulled it on, relieved that he was still on the bed, clutching himself between his legs.

She was attempting to tug on a pair of panties when she suddenly felt herself flying backwards. Charlie had a fistful of her hair and was dragging her back towards him. Her scalp burned like fire as he flung her onto the bed. She tried to scoot back but Charlie fell on top of her and pinned her to the bed, with his left forearm across her throat. She kicked and flailed her arms, fighting to breathe. 

“Stop fucking moving,” he growled into her ear. 

When she didn’t, he slapped her across the face with all his might. She continued to struggle, so he hit her again, this time with a semi-closed fist. When she still grappled to free herself, he began lowering his weight onto his forearm, against her throat. Kitty began clawing at his arm, her nails drawing blood. He moved his face close to hers, his lips curled into an evil smile. She stared up at him, her normally large brown eyes enormous and filled with terror. Her mouth was open and short, strangling noises were coming from it. With his free hand, he touched her bottom lip. He loved those lips of hers, so full and naturally bright in color. They seemed so swollen and even darker now that her face was turning red.

“Are you going to give me the ring now?” Charlie asked, softly. 

Kitty attempted to nod, her eyes still wide with fright and the white starting to redden, as tiny blood vessels began bursting. Charlie removed his forearm at an agonizingly slow slow speed, for no other reason than to remind her who was in charge. Kitty gasped and choked, trying to get air into her lungs. As she struggled to breathe, he reached over and slid the ring off her finger, before dropping her limp hand back onto the bed. He looked at the simple gold band for a second, before looking back at the half-naked girl who was dormant on the bed. He leaned down and kissed her bruised cheek, listening as the wheezing sounds came out of her mouth. He ran his fingers through her hair and, when he pulled his hand away, noticed dozens of strands clinging to his fingers.

He shook his head.

“I don’t know why you make me do this, Kitty. All this for a ring. I’ll never understand your logic.”

He stood up and headed to the bedroom door.

“Please Charl-” she choked, her voice barely above a whisper. “Please don’t take it- I’ll do- Anyth- Please-”

Charlie turned to look at her. Kitty was struggling to turn toward him.

“ _Anything_ ,” she stressed.

“Anything?” 

She nodded. Charlie walked back and took a seat on the bed. He reached down and pulled her up into a sitting position. Her body was like a rag doll, so weak that she collapsed against him and used his chest as support to hold herself up. Her head lolled to the side, falling onto his shoulder. Charlie smiled, mistaking it for a sign of affection. He put his arms around her and used one hand to rub her back.

“You really want to keep this ring?” he asked. “It’s that important to you?”

“Please...” she whispered, her voice hoarse and her lungs searing with pain. “You can do anything you want to me… Put... _it_ anywhere. I won’t say no…But please… Please let me have it back.”

Charlie rested his cheek against hers, so she couldn’t see his smirk. Silly girl. As if she had any say at all in where he put what. She hadn’t seemed to come to the realization yet that she was his and that he would do whatever he wanted to her whenever he wanted.

“Big Curtis out there was going to give me two dollars for this ring, Kit...”

Kitty closed her eyes, glad her face was buried so that he couldn’t see her expression. This monster was willing to trade her beloved mother’s wedding ring for two lousy dollars? She wondered how she could have ever thought she loved a man who turned out to be so cruel. She assumed it was because she had just lost her mother a few weeks before and needed some comfort. Charlie was a comfort to her… then.

“I’ll give you the two dollars,” she croaked.

“Do you have two dollars, Kitty?”

“No… but I’ll get it. I’ll get a second job.”

“I need it now, Kit. Right now.”

“But I don’t have it now. You can sell anything else I have – my clothes, all of my belongings.” 

“None of that is worth two dollars.”

“No, but I’ll get it. I promise. I’ll get three jobs, Charlie. I’ll give you more money. Please!” she started to cry.

They were both silent for a moment.

“You do have one thing that’s worth two dollars, Kit,” Charlie said, quietly. “Something besides the ring.”

“Whatever it is, you can have it…. What is it?”

“Well… Big Curtis out there has had his eye on you for awhile...”

Kitty’s blood ran cold. She froze and her eyes shot open.

“...I can’t count the number of times he’s offered me two dollars for a few minutes with you.”

Kitty fought to keep her breath steady, though she was still rasping.

“What do you mean?” she asked, slowly.

“You wouldn’t have to do more than just lie there and it wouldn’t be more than 15 minutes.” Charlie let out a chuckle. “Hell, he’d probably be so excited to be with you, it would only last five.”

“How could you ask me to do that?” she whined. “I’m not that kind of girl.”

“I’m not asking you to do it. You said you would do _anything_ to keep the ring, Kitty-cat. I’m just giving you an option. You spend a few minutes with Big Curtis, you keep the ring. You don’t, I take the ring.”

For a moment, the only sound in the room Kitty’s labored breathing.

“I don’t know why you’re so unwilling to part with your virtue,” Charlie said, “because _that_ is long gone. You were a virgin who wouldn’t let me put my tongue in your mouth three months ago and now you’ve already given yourself away to two guys.”

“I didn’t _give_ myself to either of you,” she said, mournfully. “He took it and you practically did the same. You were _at_ me all the time, threatening to hurt me or abandon me in the middle of nowhere if I didn’t let you do it. You didn’t give me a choice... You said that you loved me, Charlie, and that you were going to marry me, that you’d take care of me. That’s the only reason I left with you.”

“We knew each other for six weeks before all that happened – did you really think I would marry someone after that short a time? You’re too smart a girl to believe that.”

“That’s what you told me, so I believed you. I trusted what you said... I came halfway across the country with you to be your wife, not your whore.”

“Watch your filthy mouth,” he seethed.

Kitty didn’t say anything, as silent tears spilled over and ran down her cheeks. 

“It won’t be so bad, Kitty,” he said, softly, after a moment. “He isn’t going to hurt you. Just do what he tells you and it will be over before you know it... If you face the other direction, you don’t even have to look at him. You can just pretend it’s me.”

Kitty fought back sobs. She wondered how he could think that pretending another man was him would make anything better. It was as if he didn’t know he was the person she despised most in the world.

After giving her a moment to think, Charlie asked, “So, what is it, Kit? Do you want the ring?”

“Yes,” she finally whispered.

He picked up her hand and slid the ring back on her finger, kissing her hand before he released it. Kitty began openly sobbing and covered her face with her hands.

“There’s my good girl. No crying now,” he said, in a soothing voice, as he kissed her face and hair. 

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small flask. After opening it, he handed it to her.

“Drink this.” 

Kitty did as he said but, as soon as she tasted it, she started sputtering and choking. 

“Don’t spill it, goddammit – that costs money! I know it tastes terrible, but it will make everything easier. You probably won’t even remember any of it tomorrow. Take another drink. Fast. Don’t even swallow it, just open your throat and let it go down.”

Though it tasted terrible and burned like fire, she did as she was told, willing to try anything to make this night easier. 

“Good girl… Sweet girl... Let me look at you, Kit.”

Charlie switched on the bedside lamp, before he took Kitty’s chin and pulled her face toward him. She looked at him, grief-stricken.

“You’re a mess,” he said, tracing the bruises that had begun forming on her neck. “Turn the light back off when I leave. I’m going to give you a few minutes to get yourself together, before I send him in here. Wipe your face and brush your hair. Put some clothes on – he might want to take them off himself.”

Kitty start crying again and lowered her head. Charlie took her by the throat, his thumb pressing on her windpipe, and forced her to look at him. 

“Stop crying!” he spat. “No one wants to touch a hysterical woman.” 

‘Since when?’ she thought, remembering the countless times her tears didn’t affect Charlie’s desire to violate her.

Kitty sniffed and did her best to swallow her sobs. Charlie released her and got up from the bed. When he reached the door, he turned to look at her.

“I love you, Kitty.”

When she sat there, wiping her tears and not responding, he repeated it, in a low, threatening whisper.

“I _love_ you, Kitty.”

“I love you, Charlie,” she whispered, not looking at him.

He smiled and left the room. 

Kitty dropped her head in her hands and tried to process what was about to happen to her. She was afraid of the man Charlie called Big Curtis. He was a huge man, over a foot taller than Charlie and more than twice as wide. He never spoke when she was around, had never even once uttered a word, but his eyes followed her everywhere. 

If she came home from work and Charlie was home alone, she would make the two of them dinner before she taking a shower and getting ready for bed.. that is, if Charlie didn’t want sex the moment she walked in the door, which he often did. However, if his gambling buddies where already there with him, she had taken to going straight to bed and waiting to shower until the morning, because she couldn’t stomach the idea of being anywhere close to them, especially Big Curtis. 

Kitty looked down at the thin gold band on her finger and sighed. She knew her mother would have thought her crazy to sacrifice herself for a ring but, because Kitty had left Chicago in such a hurry after the attack, the ring was the only thing she had taken of her mother’s and she would rather die than part with it. Kitty knew in her heart that her mother would have told her that it was only a ring and that the only thing she needed of her mother’s was something she already had, her mother’s love. But Kitty needed something she could see, something tangible, to remind her of the person who had loved her most in the world, the one she had lost only months before. She was willing to give up her final piece of dignity to be able to hold onto the precious keepsake... Of course, what Kitty didn’t know is that within a few weeks time, Charlie would not only sell the ring but also begin the practice of selling her to men regularly.

Kitty turned off the lamp, before she stood up and washed her face in the basin of water she kept in the room. The cool water felt good against her stinging face. She soaked a washcloth and ran it over her aching throat, trying to help with the pain. It did nothing for the pain, but the cool towel still felt nice. She was sticky with sweat and knew she probably smelled of it after her fight with Charlie, but she didn’t attempt to clean herself. Maybe, if she smelled bad, the man would be quick about whatever he was planning on doing to her.

The whiskey Charlie had given her was starting to take effect. As she started buttoning up the shirt, she noticed that the pain had started to subside a bit. She hoped that it would disappear and that she would be good and drunk before the man- 

The bedroom door opened and Kitty spun toward it. The light from the other room flooded the bedroom, allowing Kitty to see only the hulking shadow of the man. He was so tall that he his head almost reached the door frame. She took a step backward, involuntarily. He closed the door behind him and the room was dark again. He walked up to her slowly and she struggled to see him, as her eyes adjusted to the sudden change in light. 

“You’re pretty,” he said, simply, with the trace of a speech impediment. 

Kitty didn’t respond. She assumed he couldn’t see her face in the dark because the last thing she was right now, with all that Charlie had done to her, was pretty. 

He put his hand on her cheek and stroked her lower lip with this thumb. His hand was so big that if he were to hit her, Kitty thought, he would probably knock her head off her body. She trembled in fear. His other hand reached up and cupped her breast over the cotton of the shirt she was wearing, using his thumb to do the same thing to her nipple that the other was doing to her lip. He reached forward and began unbuttoning the shirt. As he pushed it off her shoulders, she continued staring forward, trying not to cry.

“Charlie thaid I could.”

His large hands slid over her body, moving over the surface before he moved to her more intimate areas. His touch seemed reverent, as if this were something he had dreamed of doing for a very long time. When she felt him push a large digit inside of her, two fat tears rolled down her cheeks. 

“Get on the bed. On your handth and kneeth,” he muttered.

Kitty turned around and did as she was told. She knew from experience that life was easier if you did what you were told.


End file.
